Chapter 55 - Volume 4 (1/2)

Extra arc 『The Stage Ghost’s Cappricio』 Chapter 7

I’ll start from the conclusion.

A magic that can make a puppet into a human does not exist.

For 『things』 imitating the shape of living things, there was a philosophy that these had a certain 『power』 that draws a line over being simple inorganic matters. That way of thinking exists in Japan and even in this world.

If I pull out Japan’s history as an example, there were things like hina dolls that were used to ward off evil and shikigamis that were used for onmyoudo.

In terms of dolls, which were 『things』 imitating human shape, there were rich variations ranging from folklores to ghost stories. I’ve heard ones where they end up walking or dancing, becoming replacements for humans, having human spirits dwell in them, or even growing out hair.

Even in this world, there were ghost stories that are associated with dolls, but in addition to that, there were also stories about magic that influences dolls.

For instance. Magic that manipulates dolls at will by inserting one’s will inside them.

At this moment, even if they were equally inorganic matters, the level of difficulty between inserting one’s will into a doll and inserting one’s will into a pebble were completely different.

A doll was a 『thing』 that imitated a human shape and it didn’t have a will of its own. Since it meets the requirement, it’s significantly easier to enter that 『humanoid shell』 compared to that of entering other inorganic matters.

In other words, this was magic that uses the 『power』 that tools called dolls have.

There were other magic that uses dolls. But what’s common among these were that people developed magic that turned dolls into tools.

I tried thinking over Nival Galant’s magic in particular.

One could say that he was also a user of a magic that wouldn’t invoke without the 『power』 held by 『dolls』.

People who don’t have a deep understanding about magic often misunderstand, but it wasn’t that Nival Galant could use 『magic that moves inorganic matter』 . Nival Galant’s magic was restricted to only dolls, you could say it was an incredibly limiting magic given that it could move dolls because they were close to human form.

In this regard, the dolls produced are not confined to, say, the material or its size. It doesn’t matter whether they are big or small.

The only restriction was that the form could not deviate from a typical human too much. It was no good, for example, if the doll was not made with all the human joints, and it was impossible to move a doll with wings on its back.

The appearances of the dolls themselves change in accordance to Nival’s magic.

But the dolls’ nature as tools remain the same.

Taking the alterations that Nival personally desires, the dolls could change their figures. Due to his perfectionism, the alterations follow Nival’s desires for 『figures close to humans』.

And his intention was for it to remain a shell. Without a voice of its own. It only moves with the responses drilled into it. An existence that only answers the desires of the wizard.

Even Nival himself acknowledges that fact.

Nival’s automatons needed a long time in order to make up one body that accurately and precisely imitated humans.

Though Nival made it clear that he was proud of his work at every opportunity, he also plainly expressed his honest opinion to the reporter that described his work as 『making a human』.

What he makes was a 『doll』, there’s no way they could be 『humans』. That was what he stated.

（I wonder if this person thought of 『Miria』 like this too）

The report was released prior to 『Miria』 being born.

But it was said that Nival Galant spent many long months and years of his life making 『Miria』. In other words, besides making other dolls, he poured all of his skills into carefully crafting 『Miria』 and brought her close to human.

To the automaton that couldn’t move without the responses drilled into it, he tried to teach every possible response and movement. Though there was no way of knowing what motivation drove him to do it, it was likely a task that required an extraordinary level of imagination and patience.

The catchphrase that 『Miria』 was 『The dollmaker Nival Galant’s greatest masterpiece』 wasn’t just for show.

Which meant, at the time of this article, even if Nival hadn’t publicized it to the world, he should’ve been working on 『Miria』’s creation.

Thus, 『Miria』, who finally came out to the world after his death, had been an automaton with an incredible thought process and was flexible enough to be able to come in contact with humans and lead a life quite similar to them.

(Having spent time with her, I feel very strongly against what Nival Galant said. I don’t know how he could say something like 『there’s no way they could be humans』. –Or maybe…)